The Arts
by okuaku
Summary: Shinji puts the 'glad' in 'gladiator'.
1. The Two Arenas

The Arts  
  
"Here Cupid has his killing ground; and the man who came to see blood himself gets a wound- in the heart."  
Ovid, "The Art of Love"  
  
"On death ground, fight."  
Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"  
  
Chapter One - The Two Arenas   
  
Shinji breathed heavily as he faced his opponent. He wasn't short of breath from exhaustion, and he wasn't gasping in terror. The man looked to be about two and a half feet taller than him, but he wasn't terrified. No, his breath came heavily and quickly because of a deep seated fear. Shinji feared that he would be responsible for another death. Two deaths already weighed heavily on his conscience. Still, he didn't want to die.  
  
The man was a monster, or, to be more precise, a giant. Standing at approximately seven and a half feet, he was a very menacing figure. The giant man slowly and cautiously moved closer to Shinji, who warily adopted a fighting stance as the man drew near.   
  
Normally, in a fight to death, Shinji wouldn't have to worry about defeat. Larger men always underestimated him and were always overconfident. Victory would come without effort, as his opponent would think he was just slitting the throat of some scrawny foreign boy. This man did not have that misconception, and was therefore more dangerous than the usual opponent. Still, this was not a huge concern, as victory was almost a given. Shinji would almost certainly win, despite the fact that he was forced to fight unarmed and unarmored.  
  
Shinji, as gladiators go, was very unique, in that he was still alive. As a convicted criminal, it was expected that he would die almost immediately. As a criminal convicted of a capital offense, it was expected that he would die even sooner than that. No man could fight a bear empty-handed and win, after all. But Shinji had won. His first "match" had been meant to be an execution. That match had been sparsely attended by normal standards, but this match was a well watched spectacle.  
  
The man circled Shinji, his Thracian sword gripped tightly in his right hand. He wore armor as well; leg guards, a small square shield, and a full visored helmet. He wore the armor of Rome's enemies, as wearing Roman armor would send the wrong message to the crowd. Anyone participating in the games, be he slave or emperor, would not be seen in Roman armor. The crowd was supposed to be reminded of Rome's past victories, their bloodlust thus quenched in times of peace.   
  
The huge man lunged forward as quickly as a striking snake. To Shinji, the movement seemed almost slow.   
  
Shinji, avoiding the blade, simply let the man's momentum carry him over his shoulder.   
  
The crowd cheered uproariously. Shinji was extraordinarily popular with the crowd, even though this was his first real match. The girls didn't exactly swoon over the short and scrawny looking Shinji, but everyone loved to see the little guy win. The fact that he was fighting without a weapon, something reserved for criminals convicted of capital offenses, only made the fight more exhilarating to watch. His ability to throw grown men, and even giant men, seemed to defy physics.   
  
The man climbed to his feet, a hard look on his face. He retained his dignity despite the humiliating fall. Standing his ground, he waited for Shinji to attack. Despite the man's tough and hardened appearance, or perhaps because of it, Shinji felt sorry for the man. His life would soon be ended by a boy that didn't need to shave, one way or another. He had been worried at first that the man might be able to overcome him, but the outcome had become obvious with the end of the first round. The giant man was simply too slow to be a threat.   
  
The man, realizing that Shinji was not planning on attacking him, started circling him again, desperate for an opening. His helmet covered his face, but Shinji knew that he was terrified. He could sense the fear and panic emanating from the giant in barely visible colored waves. Yet another one of his admired talents. He could tell that this giant, who almost certainly would have survived his three to five years as a gladiator, was a coward at heart. It depressed Shinji deeply to know this man's most well hidden secret. The crowd would not want mercy, despite the fact that this huge man probably felt like wailing pathetically for his mother. They wouldn't feel sorry for the giant. All of their hatred, frustration, and bloodlust would be channeled into the huge man they saw as a bully. No one would try to look past that shallow image.  
  
The giant charged again and again, struggling to comprehend Shinji's incomprehensible method of fighting. Every time he struck he was sent to the ground, as if thrown by an ancient and masterful Greek wrestler with iron arms. The armor hurt him instead of protecting him, jarring him to the bones with every fall. The shield was only a burden. The sword was becoming more and more useless with every round. Nevertheless, he continued his attack.   
  
He had no other choice.  
  
-  
  
After an eternal ten minutes of this spectacle, which was enjoyed by the crowd but not the participants, the fight ended. Breathing heavily, sweating, and barely able to support himself on one knee, the giant held up his left hand with his index finger extended. It was a plea for mercy. He had admitted defeat. Whether the man lived or died depended mostly on the crowd.   
  
Shinji waited breathlessly. It was this last part that he had been truly dreading.   
  
The Editor, who happened to be the Emperor himself on that day, agreed with the ruling of the general crowd. He pointed his thumb upwards, which meant 'death'.   
  
The giant, horrified but not hesitant, dragged himself forward and ceremoniously grabbed onto Shinji's thighs.   
  
At that point, Shinji was expected to kill the man.  
  
_ -"No!" shouted Shinji. "No! I won't kill him! How can you expect me to kill him? I've never seen him before in my life! I won't do it!"- _  
  
Shinji stood, his eyes full of hopelessness, looking down at the giant man.   
  
The crowd, seeing his hesitation, erupted in fury.  
  
-  
  
'Shinji' had become a household name. A hero of sorts. A small and mild boy who could defeat a ferocious and enormous bear. In the eyes of Rome he had been no more than a murderer, but in the eyes of the Roman citizens he had been an icon. The men had idolized him for his martial ability, his strange quickness. The women had imagined that he was courageous.  
  
That was no longer the case. Having refused to kill a helpless man, they now viewed him as nothing more than a spineless coward.   
  
The single guard led Shinji through the cold and lifeless building, built only for temporary housing of criminals, almost all of whom were expected to die. The prisoners were no doubt huddled together in their cramped dungeon like cells, shivering against the cold. They would not have to endure it long. They would be executed quickly; crucified, burned, eaten alive by wild animals, or stabbed to death by another prisoner. Shinji often wondered what it was that motivated them to fight each other, in the instance that they were actually given the chance. There was virtually no chance of survival, because only one man would be left standing, and he would still face almost certain death. Shinji knew that if he were in their position, unable to fight well enough to defend himself, he would simply accept death.  
  
Shinji was led past these grim rooms, to an isolated cell.   
  
-   
  
The guard locked the cell, which had been made specifically for Shinji. It was as large as a cell meant for a dozen slaves, and even had a linen mattress with bed-covers made of thick cloth. It resembled a bedroom more than a prison cell, and was actually quite nice, if a bit inhibiting.   
  
The guard, whose name was Dillius, leaned in closer. He whispered something that Shinji didn't understand.  
  
Shinji shook his head. "I don't understand Latin. Do you speak Greek?"  
  
The man paused, then responded in broken Greek, "Yes. I say before, 'Why you not escape when I bring back? Why not hit and run away?'"  
  
Shinji sat on the floor, not meeting the guard's eyes.   
  
Quietly, he said, "People would recognize me. I can't escape."   
  
The guard just nodded once with a harsh expression, without a hint of sympathy. This particular guard had always been kind to Shinji in the past, but it wasn't likely to be something that would continue. Refusing to kill in the arena was unforgivable.  
  
Shinji, having nothing better to do, read through the one book in his possession. It was, in fact, his only possession.  
  
-  
  
"Who is this?" The Lanista asked as he examined the pretty young red-haired girl, who was struggling against his guard with admirable ferocity. She was speaking in the barbarian tongue in an annoying high-pitched voice, and he nodded at the guard, a signal for him to silence her.  
  
As the guard attempted to gag the girl, she attempted to bite him, and he shoved her angrily. Falling forward, she landed on her hands and sent a kick flying at the hapless man's face. The impact sent him flying into the stone wall, and he grunted, almost immediately unconscious. The rest of the guards scrambled to restrain the girl, and she struggled against them, managing to snap out at one of the guard's legs with a ferocious kick. The man screamed in pain and fell on his back, his leg broken.   
  
One of the guards spoke, breathing heavily, "A prisoner of war, sir. A barbarian."  
  
"That's obvious enough," said the Lanista, staring at the struggling girl in amazement, "Why is she here? She doesn't have anything to do with me. Why didn't you just kill her if the auction house wouldn't take her?"   
  
"She was mistaken for a male," explained Dillius, stepping into the room. "We didn't realize the truth until the school sent her back. They were the ones that washed the mud off her. She was so filthy, her own mother wouldn't have recognized her."  
  
The girl squawked indignantly, and started shouting in Latin, "You damn Romans were the ones that dragged me through the mud in the first place! And I'm not a goddamn prisoner of war!"  
  
The Lanista sighed impatiently and ignored the slave girl completely. "My question remains. Why is she here?"  
  
Dillius responded quickly, "Well, sir, I might have an idea of a temporary use we could have for her."  
  
"And what would that be," asked the Lanista with a bored tone.   
  
-  
  
"Let me go you Dummkopf!"   
  
The guards couldn't understand a word of her Gothic tongue, so she freely used it to insult them.   
  
"Where are you taking me you idiots?"  
  
They led her past cells that were no doubt filled with men and she felt a momentary twinge of alarm. If they put her in a cell full of desperate men there was no telling what could happen. One man probably wouldn't be a threat to her, but a dozen men...   
  
They dragged past all of the normal cells to an isolated hallway that dead ended. There was a single door and they shoved her through it. Climbing to her feet, she was relieved to discover that the cell they were putting her in had only one occupant. A boy that was sitting on the ground, quietly reading a strange looking book. At first glance he appeared to be a tiny Hun.  
  
The boy looked up as they shoved her inside the cell and locked the door behind her. He blinked, confused. One of the guards started speaking in Greek with a cruel tone, "Here something for you, Shinji. Have fun."  
  
The boy seemed confused. "What?"  
  
The guards ignored him as they laughed and walked off, talking together jovially.  
  
-  
  
Her first instinct, of course, was to smack him around a little bit. She can hardly be blamed for this, taking into consideration that it appeared to her that the guards had more or less given her to the boy as a sexual gift, though this wasn't, in fact, the case. Ignoring the rash impulse to use violence, she forced herself to consider the implications. If she beat him, he would bleed. If he bled, he'd probably get gangrene and stink up the place.  
  
Asuka examined the boy skeptically. She was quite sure that she could take him, even in the worst of scenarios. The guards, being men, must have assumed that he was stronger because he was male. Men always seemed to assume that women were weaker by default.   
  
Seeing that he wasn't a threat, she started conversing with him, speaking in a semi-friendly tone. "So, what makes you so important that you get your own cell?" she asked, her voice lightly laced with sarcasm.  
  
He didn't meet her inquisitive eyes, nervously staring at the wall. After a moment he said quietly, "I'm a gladiator."   
  
"'Gladiator?' What does that mean?"   
  
She knew what gladiators were, of course. She had read about them many times in books, however, it was to her advantage to pretend that she knew nothing of Rome.  
  
"It's just… fighting," he said, not sounding too sure of himself.  
  
That he was lying was obvious to her. Even if his tone and expression didn't give him away, she knew that there was no way a scrawny kid like him could survive in a fight against a grown man. That was something that Asuka could do, of course, but that was different.   
  
"You're joking, right?" she asked, her voice heavy with skepticism.  
  
He shook his head. "No."   
  
She examined his slight frame again, puzzled. "Who do you fight, eight year old girls?"  
  
He shook his head, finally meeting her eyes. "More like eight foot tall men."  
  
His tone wasn't very convincing, but she somehow had the strong impression that he wasn't lying. It sounded more like he was just nervous.   
  
She snorted. "They don't even come that big. You're obviously lying."  
  
He sighed through his nose and started reading through the book that was still in his hands, saying nothing.   
  
"Well, aren't you the mysterious one," she said, shaking her head in disgust. "Putting on airs is so pathetic."   
  
Asuka inspected the room briefly, noting that it was nicer than any place she'd ever lived. Not that she'd lived in a lot of nice places. "There's only one bed."  
  
"You can have it," he said, obviously not wanting to argue.  
  
Asuka couldn't decide which was more pathetic; his tone, or his attitude in general. For someone who claimed to be a gladiator he didn't sound very confident. "What's wrong with you, anyway? Have these Roman bastards broken you already?"  
  
"No, they haven't," he said, his weak voice not carrying the strength of his statement.   
  
She changed the subject.   
  
"Hey, what's that book? Those letters look weird. Almost like runes."   
  
He looked up from the book. "It's Chinese. From China. No one really knows about it here."   
  
She found herself interested. She'd traveled around quite a bit, and enjoyed learning about far off places. "Chinese? China? What sort of place is that?"  
  
"It's very... different."  
  
"How eloquent. Come on, explain it to me. What are the people like?"  
  
"They're kind of... secretive."   
  
She glared at him. "You'd fit in well. all right, whatever. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. What about that book? What's it about?"  
  
"It's about 'The Art of War'."  
  
"'The Art of War'? Can you actually read it?"   
  
The letters looked difficult, even to her. Besides that, the boy seemed too young to be able to read well.  
  
Resigned to his fate, he sighed and closed the book. "Most of it, yeah."  
  
She looked at him expectantly, her arms crossed.  
  
He drew back, confused. "What?"  
  
As if it were the most obvious thing in the world, she said, "Aren't you going to read a passage? It'll give us something to talk about."  
  
He shrugged, uncaring. "All right." He opened to a random page and started reading:  
  
_ "The doctrine of war is to follow the enemy situation in order to decide on battle. Therefore at first be shy as a maiden. When the enemy gives you an opening be swift as a hare and he will be unable to withstand you."_  
  
Asuka nodded. "Sounds like common sense. Only a fool rushes into battle when there's no need. What's the point of writing a book about something everyone knows already? Read something else."  
  
Shinji flipped to another page and read another passage:   
  
_ "Generally, management of many is the same as management of few. It is a matter of organization."_  
  
Asuka laughed. "Obviously he's never tried to organize a barbarian horde. 'Management of the many' takes a whole lot more than just a little organization."  
  
"You call your own people barbarians?" Shinji asked, surprised that a girl as confident as her would be self deprecating in any way.  
  
She nodded. "We serve warrior kings. We wear animal skins. What would you call us? Read something else."  
  
Shinji shook his head and closed the book. "I'm sick of war."  
  
She winked. "Well how about some love then?"  
  
Had the situation been a little different, Shinji might have blushed and stuttered something out. He was a little distracted, however, by his own impending execution.  
  
"Hello? No reaction at all?" She had been trying to get a rise out of him, but the comment had drove him further into his shell instead.  
  
He stared forward, avoiding her eyes. "I have something on my mind."   
  
She humphed. "Whatever. Anyway, I'll show you what I was talking about." She concentrated for a moment, looking at the ceiling. She then started speaking in a measured tone,   
  
"Birds have their mates, fish in the cold mid-ocean,  
Thrilled by sexual emotion,  
Find partners, hinds follow stags, snakes clasp snakes,  
Dogs couple, glued together, the ewe takes  
Pleasure in her tupping ram, the heifer's full   
Of desire for her covering bull,  
The snub-nosed she-goat happily bears  
Her stinking billy, and heat crazed mares,  
Though separated,  
By miles from stallions, swim streams to get mated.  
Act, then. Only a strong dose of love will cure  
A woman with an angry temperature."  
  
She winced. "It loses something in the translation, I think."  
  
"What was that? Who wrote it?" asked Shinji, his cheeks slightly flushed. The poem had affected him where her "love" comment hadn't.   
  
"A passage from 'The Art of Love', by Ovid. It sounds a lot better in Latin, though. Did you like it?" She smiled, glad to have gotten a reaction out of him.  
  
"It was... eloquent." He wasn't sure how anyone could properly praise erotic poetry without sounding like a pervert.  
  
She chuckled. "You know, I've got an angry temperature. You think you could cure me with a dose of love?"  
  
He sighed. "Somehow, I doubt it."  
  
She nodded. "Smart answer, but pretty boring. Didn't you say you were a gladiator? You should have more confidence than that."  
  
He smiled, very slightly. "I thought you didn't believe me about that."  
  
"Confidence is even more important when you lie," she assured him.  
  
Shinji slight smile widened into a casual smirk. "If confidence is needed for lying, then I must be telling the truth."   
  
"Hmm, you could be right. Where are you from anyway?" she asked, examining him for a third time, "You're obviously not Greek or Roman and you're definitely not from any of the Germanic tribes. I thought you were a Hun at first."  
  
Shinji looked puzzled. "Germanic tribes? Who are they?"  
  
Asuka waved the question off. "Goths. You know, barbarians? That's just what the Romans call us. So, like I was saying, where are you from?"  
  
"I come from a country far away called 'Riben'. I don't even speak the language, though. My people are barbarians, like yours."   
  
She nodded. "Okay, so what's your name?"  
  
"Shinji."   
  
She smiled in a friendly and polite fashion. "Nice to meet you. My name is Asuka."  
  
"Asuka?" he asked, surprised. It certainly wasn't a barbarian name, but that wasn't what had surprised him. The word 'Asuka' actually sounded vaguely familiar, and he felt as if he should have recognized it.   
  
She scowled at him angrily, "You'd better not make fun of my name. I don't know where it comes from, okay?"  
  
"No, I wouldn't... of course not... I'm sorry." Shinji stumbled through the apology, as he was wont to do. Asuka ignored him.  
  
She walked over to the iron door, tapping on it soundly with one finger.   
  
Turning back to Shinji, she asked, matter-of-factly, "So, now that we're properly introduced... how are we going to escape from here?"  
  
End Chapter One  
  
  
  



	2. Asuka, A Woman with a Fine Physique, and...

"Hearts have as many traits as faces."  
Ovid, "The Art of Love"  
  
"We've never ever moved together, yet so beautiful."  
Cibo Matto, "Clouds"   
  
** Chapter Two:   
Asuka, a Woman with a Fine Physique  
And Shinji, the Weak**  
  
Asuka lay staring up at the ceiling as she lay on the bed, her head casually supported by her hands. She, having eventually decided that escape wasn't feasible, had become bored quickly.   
  
"Shinji."   
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm bored," she said, facing him as she rose to a sitting position, "You don't have any other books in here do you?   
  
"No," he said, shaking his head, "This is the only one I brought with me."  
  
"How come they let you keep it?" she asked, yawning, "They took all _my_ stuff."  
  
"I don't really know," he said, shrugging awkwardly, trying to sound casual, "I guess they just didn't care..."  
  
He didn't really want to mention the actual reason they'd been kind enough to return his sole possession. She wouldn't believe him, and it would likely start another argument.  
  
Asuka sat up and peered at him thoughtfully.   
  
"They weren't nice to me at all," she said, suspicious, "And I've heard things about the Romans and little boys, you know...?"  
  
"What do you mean?"   
  
"You know..." Asuka made a vulgar gesture with her hands and fingers, making her meaning very clear. "So did they...?"  
  
"Of course not!" protested Shinji, his voice changing to a high-toned whine again, "Nothing like that!"   
  
"I'm not sure I believe you..." said Asuka with a doubtful tone as she laid back down on the bed.  
  
"What makes you think it could be something like that!?" asked Shinji, blushing with embarrassment.  
  
"We're stuck here with nothing to do," explain Asuka, shrugging slightly as she lay on the bed, "And you're not interesting at all."   
--   
_ "And what about this one? Should I send him back?" the man asked, examining the boy with a critical eye. "He looks weak."  
  
The small, thin child, who seemed to want nothing more than to be swallowed up by the earth, was very unimpressive. Shinji, only eight years old at the time, didn't understand the situation in the slightest. He knew only that he had been abandoned.  
  
She shook her head, and slapped the boy's face, causing him to shrink back. "No. Make sure he is trained especially well. He has an unusual talent."  
  
"What kind of talent?" the old man asked sarcastically, "Can he run fast?"   
  
"No. He can fight."  
  
_ _-  
_ _  
Asuka listened with wide eyes and an open mouth as the great, bearded man told another story of ancient days, speaking in accented Greek, as he always did.   
  
"Asuka, you believe women are weak? You think women cannot be real fighters, Asuka?"  
  
She leaned forward, her hands clasped tightly around her elbows.  
  
"A long time ago, our people dwelled near Egypt, above the sea of Pontus. A foolish egyptian king named Venosis dared to war with us. The men gathered together and formed a great army, leaving no men behind. The army left to defeat the Egyptians and drove them back to the safety of their country's walls. The Egyptians were defeated easily, of course. Those 'civilized' men could not fight, Asuka. They were lazy and weak. They were cut down like weeds, Asuka. But while the men were away, some other tribe came to steal our women.   
  
"These men were slaughtered by the women they meant to steal. Women who had been taught to fight by their husbands only, Asuka! How much stronger is a women raised to be a warrior, not just taught to fight in case of emergency?  
  
"Those women formed their own army and conquered other tribes! With Merpesia commanding they conquered some and allied with others. This army of females disgraced the men they fought. And they were not raised to fight, as those men were.   
  
"Women are stronger then men, I believe this now. You must let no man say that he is your equal, Asuka. In battle, let your breasts remain covered. You will not try to distract men with your beauty. You will kill them with your strength. You will not be a wife. I swear you will never be wedded. You can never be weak, never. A warrior only, stronger than any other. Never say that parents abandoned you. Say that _ _**you** abandoned those fools, Asuka!" _  
  
--  
  
Asuka climbed to her feet, and started teasing Shinji once again, reciting in a solemn voice,   
  
_ "If your belly shows stretch marks, then turn over  
And offer your lover  
A rear engagement, as Parthian cavalry might."  
_   
"What!?"  
  
"Just some friendly advice for the girls," Asuka said, grinning at Shinji's reaction. "Ovid's a really cool guy. You could learn something from him."  
  
"That doesn't seem as nice as the first one..."  
  
"Yeah, but it's a lot more informative," she explained. "So, you ever going to tell me anything about yourself? Not that I'd be interested, normally, but there's nothing to do here."  
  
Shinji didn't respond. There was nothing he could say.  
  
"Hello?" Asuka intoned, irritated, "You said you used to live in some weird foreign country, right?"  
  
He nodded. "China."  
  
"Is that all you have to say about it?" she said, pacing back and forth in frustration, "I could talk about the things I've done all day. What's so hard about it?"  
  
--  
  
_ A ten year old Asuka walked on the frozen sea and away from the far-off island, shivering. The bleak and blackish sky above her was dark and depressing. The ground below her was hard, cold, and slippery. The wind around her was strong and bit into her face, which was wet with rain and snow. Surrounded by harshness, she headed back to the ship, very ready to abandon her 'homeland' without ever having set foot on it.  
  
The island of Gothiscandze was, at that time, a place of endless night. For forty days and forty nights there would be no light. On top of that, she would have had to cross miles of frozen sea to get to the island. The cold was simply unbearable. It would be warmer in the summer, of course, but she wasn't willing to be quite that patient.   
  
She heard a distant and familiar voice call out, -"Asuka? Back so soon? I thought you wanted to explore the island."-   
  
She growled deep in her throat. -No, **you** wanted me to 'explore the island'...-  
  
_ _-  
_ _   
"I can't do it," he said, sobbing, as tears streamed down his face. "I'm doing my best..."  
  
"You are pathetic. You are to be one of the Emperor's personal bodyguards. Act like it."  
  
"I'm sorry, master. I've read the book, twice, but it doesn't help..."  
  
"Stop your whining! That is part of your problem! You must work harder! The Emperor is not pleased with you."  
  
"I know, master. I'll do my best."  
  
"I assume that you will always 'do your best'. It is more important that you succeed, boy," the old man said. His words sounded like a proverb, but were spoken as a threat.  
  
"I understand, Master," said Shinji, not understanding at all.  
_   
--  
  
Asuka calmed herself and stopped pacing, knowing that another outburst wouldn't change anything.   
  
"Why did they throw you in here anyway?" she asked, hoping to raise a more neutral subject.  
  
"For no reason. I didn't do anything."  
  
Asuka rolled her eyes and asked impatiently, "Okay then, what would they say if I asked _them_?"  
  
"They would say that... I killed someone."  
  
"What kind of idiot would believe that _you_ would have the guts to kill someone?" she demanded.   
--  
  
_ "It's too damned cold," Asuka admitted, stomping her feet to get the snow off her boots. "I don't know how they could stand to live in this place. And there's no light!"  
  
He laughed heartily, standing with arms akimbo as he mockingly proclaimed, "It is a joy to hear a strong person admit a great weakness, I always say that. Do you agree, Asuka?"  
  
She scowled at him, and pulled her furs around herself tightly, still shivering. "Are you making fun of me Stilicho?"  
  
"I could never mock 'the great Asuka Sodyu'!" he insisted, still mocking her.   
  
She growled and punched him in the gut, causing no reaction from him other than a widening of his smile. Sternly, she reprimanded him, "Don't talk like that! And don't use my full name!"   
  
He chuckled, amused as always by her quick temper. "You should be able to stand this cold easily, Asuka. It is not so bad. But did you know that the wolves will go blind from the cold if they cross that ice?" he said, looking out into the distance.  
  
"I can believe it," she said, and blew warm breath onto her hands. "You didn't tell me I'd have to cross an ocean of ice. I wouldn't have bothered coming if I'd known. I didn't want to spend more than a couple days here, you know."  
  
"You still would have wanted to try," he said, grinning widely.   
  
She gave him a fierce scowl. "I'm not _ _stupid Stilicho! And this whole thing was __your idea in the first place, anyway! I didn't even want to come here!"  
  
He nodded. "This is true. Still, we will come back when it is light. To be a true warrior, you must know every aspect of yourself. You will see Gothiscandze and Scythia, the homes of your people. I swear I will make you a true warrior, greater than any other!" he said, one of his oft repeated vows.  
  
Asuka rolled her eyes, her anger already cooled. "You're so _ _dramatic Stilecho. This isn't a stage we're standing on, it's a freight ship."   
  
He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Every place is like a stage," he said, "The whole world is like a stage. Everyone is like an actor, just playing a part."   
  
"Maybe you should write that down," she advised sarcastically, and shook her head in disgust. "Poetry is nonsense. True eloquence is expressed with actions, not some stupid words."  
  
He shrugged. "You are smarter than me Asuka, I don't forgot this. But there are still many things that I can teach you. You are just a little girl still, Asuka."   
  
"Don't give me that, Stilicho," she said, laughing harshly, "I'm better than anyone!"   
  
"You think so?"   
_ -  
  
_ "You are the best, Shinji. The fastest, the strongest, and the most skilled. You are descended from the dragons! Why are you shy, like a woman?"   
  
The old man didn't wait for an answer as he set down the newly scribed book.   
  
"Read this book," he said. "Read it many times. Then, after you have read it, apply what you have learned to every situation. Not just war. You must have a man's confidence, a man's courage."  
  
"But I can't read," Shinji said, looking at the book but not picking it up.  
  
After a moment of silence, the old man picked up the book and threw it angrily at Shinji, who cringed as he effortlessly caught it in one hand.   
  
"That is not my concern, boy. You will do as I command and not bother me with the details."  
  
_ --  
  
"Shinji, can I ask you something?" Asuka asked, her voice slightly flirtatious.   
  
"What?"  
  
She smiled at him suggestively. "We've been stuck in here for, what, four days now?"  
  
"More like six months for me," he coldly observed. "You just got here."   
  
Her suggestive smile vanished, and she shook her head in frustration. "What's wrong with you, Shinji? Are you sick in the head or something?"  
  
"Maybe I am," he muttered.  
  
"Whatever. Listen, I've been teasing you for hours now and all you do is sit there like a rock," She said, speaking quickly, "We're going to be stuck together for a while, so we had better get used to each other. You got it?" .  
  
"Yeah," he said, though he knew that she was wrong.   
  
They wouldn't be stuck together for very long at all.  
  
--  
  
_ -I'm leaving today. I'm never coming back.-  
_ _   
-I have no reason to stay. I have no responsibility to these people.-  
  
Shinji calmly packed his few possessions, feeling no qualms about stealing the tiny gold statuettes.  
  
The assassin, having cleverly concealed himself in the Emperor's bedroom, was never discovered. The Emperor was dead in the morning. Shinji was not there to see this, however.   
  
He disappeared during the night, and he never planned to return.  
_   
-  
  
_ "You should have at least walked on the island itself. Seeing it from far away is not the same. It is a great island, Asuka."  
  
"Don't lecture me! If I don't want to freeze to death it's my own business!"   
  
"Whatever you say," he said, shrugging. "If you want to leave, we leave, Asuka. But we should not go to Scythia now. Maybe we will finally go to Scythia in the spring also. Where do _ _you want to go, Asuka?"  
  
She thought for a moment, then stood up tall in a dignified pose, her chin tilted up slightly as she announced, "We will go to the Colloseum."   
  
She burst out laughing and her dignified pose fell apart.   
  
He gave her a half smile, strangely glad to see her acting childish. "Where do you really want to go?"  
  
"No, really, I mean it. I want to go see the games," she insisted. "Everyone writes about them. I know it'll probably be pretty boring, and it's meant for commoners, but I'd like to see it at least once."  
  
"No. We will not go to Rome. As I said, never beyond Egypt. In Roman Empire you become either slave or Roman. Nothing else." He shook his head resolutely. "I would not become a Roman. Too many have done so, forgetting the old ways."  
  
She snorted. "You're a fool Stilicho. 'The old ways'? You mean 'pillage and plunder'? The Romans are civilized, at least."  
  
He gave her a stern look. "Very well. If that is your answer, we'll wait here for the spring. It is only a month or two."  
  
"What!? The slaves'll go insane! They're Egyptian, for God's sake," she protested, though she was actually more concerned about herself.   
_   
--  
  
Asuka walked up to Shinji and leaned toward him until their noses were almost touching, squinting as if trying to examine him closely.   
  
"What did the Romans do to you, anyway?" she said, "It couldn't have been worse than what they did to me."  
  
"I already told you." He turned his face away from hers, made uncomfortable by the intrusion.   
  
She shrugged. "Whatever you say, stick-boy."   
  
"I don't care if you believe me or not," he said, in a high-toned voice, "It's pointless to argue about it..."   
  
"Well _I_ do care!" she yelled, suddenly erupting at him, venting days worth of frustration, "Where do you get off telling lies like that anyway? You think it impresses anyone? I'll tell you what, if you're some kind of fighter why don't you show me some fancy moves?"  
  
He stood up and turned fully away from her. "I don't want to."  
  
"I don't want to," she sneered back at him. "How pathetic. You really think you could beat me, idiot!?" She said as she shoved him forwards, causing him to stumble.   
  
Angrily, he turned around. His eyes met her fierce and wild face, which dissolved his anger into illogical fear.   
  
Both of them stood silently for a tense moment.  
  
Wearily, he spoke, "Fine. I'll show you."   
  
He stood up and walked a couple paces away from her, then stood there nervously for a moment, not knowing what to do. There was another tense silence as the two of them watched each other from across the room.  
  
"You ready?" Asuka asked, breaking the silence and causing Shinji to cringe slightly. It amused her that he was continuing with the façade, especially when it was so obvious that he was about to get a horrible beating.  
  
Hurriedly, he assumed a low stance, his forward foot stretched out in front of him in what looked to be an almost uncomfortable position.   
  
"Umm, come at me," he said nervously.  
  
"Come at you and do what?" she asked, skeptically. She had assumed the whole thing would be a bluff. She hadn't thought he would actually pretend that he knew how to fight. It was obvious that he was going to embarrass himself. The way he was standing would make it impossible to fight capably.  
  
"Well... I think it's supposed to be a surprise.."  
  
"Whatever you say..."   
  
She charged towards him, planning to simply tackle him, and nearly ended up crashing into the wall instead.   
  
She wasn't quite sure what happened, Shinji stood behind her a moment later, preventing her from losing balance with a steadying hand.   
  
He had moved impossibly quick.  
  
She whirled around to face him, exhibiting courage despite her terror. "What in God's name did you just do!? Are you a devil!?"  
  
--   
  
-I didn't kill the Emperor. All I did was remain silent. It's not my fault. I didn't do anything. It's not my fault.- _  
  
An unkempt man said something unintelligible to him, making various gestures with his hands. Shinji, afraid of offending the man, attempted a smile.  
  
Shinji shook his head politely. "I'm sorry, I don't understand."  
  
The man smiled back at Shinji in a friendly manner, "You want learn how speak a little Greek, kid?" he asked, speaking barely understandable Chinese.   
  
Shinji smiled widely, having naturally assumed that the man would be an enemy.  
  
"I think I would like that, sir."  
  
"No need formality!" the man said boisterously, his long and tangled brown hair blowing in his face.  
  
Shinji had a feeling he was going to like the western world.   
  
_ _ -  
_ _  
_ _ "You are not a normal woman Asuka," said Stilicho, his expression stern, "I say woman, not girl, though you are only twelve."  
  
"What are you **talking** about Stilicho?" Asuka said, annoyed.  
  
"Listen to me Asuka. You can be a great leader. A great general. You could rule the entire world if you want. You are meant for great things. You are fit to be the bride of Mars himself, Asuka."  
  
Asuka rolled her eyes and said sarcastically, "I thought you didn't want me to become a bride."  
  
"You know what I mean, Asuka. Please be serious now. Soon, we will be returning to Scythia, but not as before. There is a war between our people and the Romans, Asuka. I am going to Rome, Asuka, but not as a slave, and not as a Roman. I go as a Goth."  
  
Asuka frowned. "Why do you use that word, 'Goth'? Why don't you say 'German'?"  
  
"Listen to me, Asuka. This is no time for one of your arguments."  
  
"What are you saying? You want me to come with you to Rome and fight? Of course I will!"   
  
He nodded grimly. "That is not all I am saying. There is more. I will be one that leads men, Asuka, as you know. First you ride with me and watch carefully. Then, Asuka, you will lead men yourself."  
_   
--  
  
"You can't seriously expect me to believe that," said Asuka, her arms crossed in front of her. "It's impossible for anyone to move that fast. How did you do it? Some kind of weird magic?"   
  
"I don't know," said Shinji hopelessly. "It's just something I can do."  
  
Silently berating herself for underestimating him, Asuka assumed an actual fighting stance, feeling a need to prove herself.  
  
"Whatever. I want a rematch," she said, "That first match wasn't fair."   
  
There wasn't anything he would rather do less, but he still did exactly as she had requested, and prepared himself for another charge. He had resigned himself to doing whatever she said, knowing that to be the path of least resistance.   
  
Still, as hard as she was to deal with, she had managed to take his mind off certain things. In a way, it was nice to have someone else in the cell with him during what were probably his last hours of life.  
  
She grinned at him, standing lightly on her feet with her hands held in front of her. "Are you ready?"  
  
He nodded hesitantly, growing more and more uncomfortable with the idea.  
  
As he nodded, she came flying at him. Quickly. More quickly than anyone ever had before. Her fist flew towards him at a great speed, not seeming to drag in the air at all.   
  
Still, as fast as her movement was, it wasn't fast enough. He avoided her striking fist, stepping to the side. He then grabbed her right arm just below the elbow, planning to pull her forward with her momentum and eventually pin her to the ground. It didn't, however, work exactly as he'd planned.   
  
He did execute the technique correctly, but, for some reason, she didn't move an inch. It was like trying to pull down a stone wall. He blinked, and released her arm. Then, as he stared at her, wide-eyed, she reached out with one leg and tripped him effortlessly, sending the shocked boy to the ground.  
  
"Look's like you're weak after all," she said, laughing.   
  
Shinj climbed to his feet, sore from the fall. "How did you do that?"   
  
"You weren't strong enough to move me. That's all there is to it," she said simply. Her face practically glowed with victory.  
  
"But..." he said, utterly confused.   
  
"Oh, have I hurt your pride, oh great one?" she said, cracking her knuckles. "I'm stronger than I look,"   
  
"But..."  
  
"They call me 'the Daughter of Mars'," she proclaimed proudly. "Thoroughly trained in both Greek Pankration and Celtic Sli Beatha."  
  
--  
  
_ "I don't like this, Stilicho," said Asuka quietly.  
  
"What? Why do you not like this?" the great man asked, as if her statement was an absurd . It was obvious that he was enjoying himself immensely. To him, a battlefield was like a playground.  
  
"Who would listen to me?" she protested, not for the first time. "I'm only 13 years old, and I'm a girl."  
  
"You are the strongest. That means they will listen," he said, replying as he always did.  
  
Asuka sighed, finding that the statement didn't become more believable with time. The idea of being in charge of an army, even a small one, had been very exciting to her at first. But doubts had developed quickly. Why would dozens of grown men listen to the shouted commands of a teenage girl, whether she was disguised as a boy or not? And it wasn't like she had anything against the Romans anyway...  
  
"Why are we even fighting the Romans?" she asked. "We want to live like them, don't we? What Roman would want to live like us? Why are we warring with people that we envy?"  
  
Stilicho's grin widened. "I think you don't understand war so well, Asuka. But I also think the Romans will be the ones to envy us when this is over."  
  
"Stop joking around!" she said angrily, "This whole thing is so _ _stupid!"_  
  
--  
  
"I hate this place!" said Asuka. "Can't we just escape when the guards open the door to take you out? The two of us could handle a few guards easily."  
  
Shinji shook his head. "It's hopeless." Even if they managed to escape the building, they'd never make it out of the city alive.  
  
"And you don't even want to try?"   
  
Shinji didn't reply, staring at the wall opposite him as he sat silently on the floor.  
  
"You're like a beaten dog," she accused. "If you don't want to help, I'll find a way to do it myself."  
  
"And you're coming with me," she added.  
  
He remained silent.  
  
"What the hell is your problem, anyway?" Asuka said, her tone rising in pitch until it became almost unbearable to listen to, "Why won't you stand up for yourself? I call you pathetic and you just sit there pathetically, not saying anything."   
  
She paced back and forth as Shinji continued to sit quietly.  
  
"I know. I already know that," he said, sounding tired.  
  
"Know what? That you're pathetic?" she asked mockingly.  
  
Shinji didn't reply, and Asuka's rage started to boil over. She glared at him, seething.   
  
"Are you going to talk to me or what?"  
  
He still said nothing.  
  
"Are you trying to make me angry? Or does this crap just come naturally?"  
  
Nothing made her more angry than being ignored. To her, it felt similar to being stabbed.  
  
She growled deep in her throat, and turned away from him, furious.   
  
--  
  
_"All foreigners welcome in Rome," the man insisted. "Do your best, and you become like the best."  
  
"But..."  
  
"It is true! Never has there been a race more accepting than the Romans," said the man, accidentally slipping into Latin, "They have brought benevolence and civility to a world of chaos and disorder."  
  
Shinji wasn't able to understand a word. "I don't under..."  
  
"Oh, I'm sorry! I just say that the Romans are very good people."  
  
"But I've never really been accepted by anyone before..."  
  
"Well you can leave that behind you now!" he said, smiling widely.  
_  
-  
  
"The guards are coming!" hissed Asuka in a whisper, "This is your chance!"  
  
He didn't respond. Asuka grabbed his shoulders and leaned in close, whispering, "Listen. I want to get out of here. I might not be able to do it by myself. When the guard opens the door, I'm going to attack them. Help me or not, your choice."   
  
She scowled, her face twisting into a sneer, "But if I die, you'll see me again. Count on it."  
  
He looked into her eyes, bright with anger.   
  
Footsteps approached.  
  
_-If she dies...-_  
  
"Wait..." he said. "Please..."   
  
  
  
  



	3. The One won't understand the Other, beca...

The Arts   
  
"When Jupiter wooed a heroine, _he_ went to her as a suppliant - no girl seduced great Jupiter."  
Ovid, "The Art of Love"  
  
"For these two forces are mutually reproductive; their interaction as endless as that of interlocked rings. Who can determine where one ends and another begins?"  
Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"  
  
** Chapter Three: The One won't understand the Other, because... **  
  
Shinji, for what seemed like the thousandth time that night, wished he had found a better place to hide.   
  
The wine barrel had seemed like a good hiding spot at first glance, but it was lacking in the comfort one would expect from an all day hideout. His legs had fallen asleep within the first fifteen minutes and the smell of wine had sickened him immediately. On top of that, the barrel wasn't even completely empty. Still, he had felt that he had no choice except to wait there for hours on end, watching through a tiny hole on the side of the barrel as a countless number of people walked by. He had been convinced that he would be recognized instantly if he so much as poked his head out.   
  
Not to say that Shinji was particularly unhappy at that point, just very uncomfortable. Night had arrived a couple hours earlier and there wasn't a person in sight. All he had to do was be out of Rome before the sun rose.   
  
He was as good as gone.  
  
Finally judging that it was safe, Shinji climbed out of the barrel and immediately fell to his hands and knees. Breathing in the fresh air deeply and thankfully, he managed to stagger to his feet, supporting himself on the wall of a nearby building.   
  
Scaling the city's wall would be no problem. Avoiding the guards would be easy. It was just a matter of running to the edge of the city and escaping into the surrounding countryside, where he could probably find a horse and ride away to some far off place.   
  
-_I've really escaped.-_  
  
But that was only if he could ignore what he had left behind, in his cowardice.   
  
_-"'Wait?' You say, 'Wait'? The guards are coming down the hall right now! I'm getting out of this damned place!" said Asuka, in the same loud and threatening whisper. _  
  
_ "Please. Just wait. Please," Shinji begged. _  
  
_-_  
  
There had been no obligation for him to help her in her plan to escape. It was her idea, not his. Shinji didn't have any responsibility to her. He hadn't thrown her in the prison. If she was executed, it was her own fault. She had gotten herself thrown into that particular pit of despair.   
  
_-A pit of despair.- _  
  
Unbidden, an image rose in Shinji's mind.   
  
Asuka, in deep pit, hanging helplessly. Tied to a frayed rope that would break any moment. Himself, standing at the edge, secured to a stronger rope. Asuka, preparing herself for death as her rope breaks. Into the endless black.   
  
This strange image was frighteningly real, like a waking dream.  
  
Asuka was a girl that had given him nothing but trouble during what were to be his last days on Earth, tormenting him, teasing him, and even attacking him. She had made things more interesting for a little while, sure, but she hadn't exactly gone out of her way for him. He had no reason to want to risk his life to save hers. No reason at all. No one had ever really done anything for him, and she was no exception.  
  
** _'You're disgusting.' _**  
  
Hatred. _  
  
(Attack where he is unprepared; sally out when he does not expect you._)   
  
**_ 'I hate your type.' _**  
  
Disgust. _  
  
(Keep him under a strain and wear him down.)_  
  
**_ 'You're joking, right?' _**  
  
Immaturity. _  
  
(All warfare is based on deception.)_  
  
**_ 'Who do you fight, eight year old girls?' _**  
  
Just an insult.   
  
_(One defends when strength is inadequate and attacks when it is abundant)_  
  
**_ 'Well, aren't you the mysterious one.' _**  
  
Confusion. _  
  
_ _ (The reason troops slay the enemy is because they are enraged.)_  
_  
_**_ 'What's wrong with you?' _**  
  
A mystery...  
  
___ (Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the attack.)_  
  
**_ 'Well? Are you gonna jump in the pit, or run away?'_**   
  
-  
  
Shinji ran as quickly as his legs would carry him, an invisible blur in the night.   
  
He approached the Flavian amphitheatre, the great colloseum, using it as a reference point to find the prison, which he'd lost sight of during his frantic escape from the guards. Closing in on the amphitheatre, he made a sharp turn to the right, heading directly towards the prison house, which he could barely detect in the darkness.  
  
-   
  
With a furious yell, Asuka charged towards the weakened door. Unable to resist another impact from her slender frame, the door splintered, and she burst through. There were guards coming toward her, eight of them, all armed with short gladius swords. Two of them to her right and six to her left. The hallway, lit with torches, was immediately familiar to her, and she lost none of her momentum as she went charging down the hallway, turning towards the right.   
  
The first of the two slashed widely at her, surprised by the sudden movement, and she met his downward swinging hand with her own knuckles, sending the blade flying and causing the man to scream in pain as he clutched his bloody fist. Nimbly ducking past the agonized man, she grabbed the still-clattering blade off the ground, simultaneously snapping a kick backward at the second man, hitting the back of his right leg and sending him sprawling to his hands and knees. Springing to her feet, she stomped on the man's wrist, and grabbed up his weapon in her her left hand.  
  
She shouldered her way past the two men, who were no longer much of a threat, and ran toward the other group of guards. All of them were watching her, standing in a defensive line, unmoving, shoulder to shoulder.   
  
Unperturbed, Asuka dropped both of her weapons and slid underneath the human wall. The men, not having expected such a ridiculous tactic, were unable to stop the girl, who was already beyond their reach. Asuka, running toward the doorway at the end of the hall, found her path blocked by yet another guard, slower to react then the others.   
  
-  
  
Shinji's plan was not foolproof, in that it was vague and ended with his own death. He would break past the guards out front easily enough; they were too slow to stop him, steal a set of keys somehow, break Asuka out, and most likely end up dead. Getting in would be easy. Getting out...  
  
But he didn't reconsider. He had made his decision.   
  
_-Just this once. Just this once, I won't run away. Just this once I'll-_  
  
_"YEAAAAAH!"_ a high-pitched scream interrupted his thoughts and stopped him in his tracks, nearly causing him to lose his balance completely. He looked wildly in all directions, sure that he had been spotted by someone.  
  
_ "YAAAAAAAAAHHH!"_ he heard again, recognizing the voice this time.   
  
It was Asuka.  
  
_ -She couldn't have...-_  
  
-  
  
Asuka burst through the front door, closely followed by the guards.   
  
_ -Ha! I didn't need that idiot after all!-_  
  
She flew down the front stairway, nearly clearing the steps in a single bound, leaving the guards further and further behind her with each step. She took great leaps, vaulting herself through the air as she ran, pushing forward with inhuman strength. She glanced backwards at the pursuing Romans, and grinned as she saw that they stopped running, realizing that she had already escaped.  
  
Facing forward again, she leapt headlong into Shinji, crashing into him at great speed. Taken completely by surprise, both of them ended up rolling on the ground, coming to a stop in a tangled heap. Asuka, quickly evaluating the situation, pulled herself to her feet.  
  
"Shinji. Follow me," she said calmly, and took off again.  
  
--  
_  
Asuka, with a ferocious yell, charged towards the man, who didn't seem to be taking her seriously at all. Weight played a large role in wrestling, no matter how you look at it, and she simply wasn't threatening. __He met her fierce expression with a confident smile. He was non-chalant, ready for an easy victory._  
_   
He blinked in confusion as she slipped between his legs, grabbing his ankles as she passed under him. Before he could react further to this, she dug her heels into the ground and stood up, lifting his ankles clear off the ground. The man, through sheer luck and wild movements, somehow managed to take her down with him, and she fell to her knees, his arm gripping her shoulder. Furious, she leapt to her feet and squatted down next to the dazed man, grabbing for his arms.  
  
The onlooking men that surrounded the two looked on in amazement as she, holding the unfortunate man by his armpits, tossed him through the air and over their heads.   
  
Breathing heavily with anger, she grimaced and clenched her fists tightly as her anger gradually cooled.  
  
Stilicho laughed loudly, and then spoke out even more loudly as he put his arm around Asuka's shoulders, "Did you see that, men! My boy Asuka is the strongest there is! Should I even ask if anyone else wants to try?"  
  
Asuka didn't listen to the man's booming voice, instead staring in horror at the fallen man, who lay nearly twenty meters from where she was standing. He was dead._  
  
--  
  
"I knocked the door down," she explained simply, as the two of them rode through the countryside.   
  
"You... knocked the door down?" Shinji asked, finding the idea a little hard to believe. The prison, like any Roman building, had been built to last.  
  
Shrugging, she smiled. "I told you, I'm stronger than I look. It took me a few tries, but it came down. No prison's been made that can hold Asuka Sodyu!" She proclaimed proudly. "How did you escape, anyway?"  
  
"I said I had to go to the bathroom, and I ran away when they took my chains off," he explained, "They... couldn't really catch me once I started running."  
  
She glanced at him skeptically. "Chains? What does that have to do with anything?" she asked with an irritated expression as she swatted at a gnat with her free hand, "You could have run away the first time they took you out."   
  
"But if I was wearing chains..." he murmured, eyes shifting downward.  
  
"You could have still ran. You could have even ran away before they put them on, like I did," she said, snatching the tiny insect out of the air, "Hell, I didn't even need them to open the door. You're just a coward, that's all.   
  
"You were just afraid that they would kill you if you tried anything, weren't you?" she continued, shaking her head in disgust as she crushed the annoying insect in her palm. "So you just put it off until you didn't have a choice anymore. Stupid."  
  
He didn't reply, and the two of them rode in silence for a little while.   
  
"Um... where are we going?" asked Shinji.   
  
"Where do you think? We're getting out of this god-forsaken empire," Asuka said, with a very slight hint of defensiveness in her voice, "Then, I was thinking we could go to this 'Rubbin' place that you come from,"   
  
"Riben? Why do you want to go there?" Shinji asked. It seemed strange that she would want to go to his country. He didn't have any desire to go there, and it was _his_ homeland. It made no sense that she would want to see it.  
  
She shrugged. "I like to visit new places."   
  
_ -And I want to get as far away from here as possible._-  
  
--  
  
_ The tone of Stilicho's voice as he shouted at her back, the combination of anger, sadness and shame, would not be easily forgotten._ _It would later come to haunt her, to taunt her.   
  
-'ASUKA! You betray me! I will never forgive this, Asuka!'_-  
  
--  
  
"But... wouldn't that take a really long time? It's so far away," Shinji said skeptically, thinking that she might be teasing him again.  
  
She shrugged. "You got something better to do? You should be thanking the Gods that I'm even willing to put up with you. You know how to get there, right?"  
  
He hesitated a moment, then nodded silently. Getting to Riben would be no problem. It's direction was always known to him. The place pulled at him somehow. Even so, when he ran away from China he had gone in the opposite direction, and had never planned to return. He had no reason to go there. It wasn't his home. He didn't have a home.  
  
"You're so gloomy all the time," she noted, frowning. "Are you still messed up from before? You know, you never really answered me before, about why you were there in the first place."  
  
"But... I already said that it was because I killed someone."   
  
"Care to be a little more _specific_? Give me some details? You don't look much like a cold-blooded murderer, you know."  
  
"Well... it was an accident," Shinji said, blushing.  
  
Hearing this, she started laughing uncontrollably, leaning forward on the horse for support.   
  
"I should have known!" she said, still laughing.  
  
-  
  
_ Holding the knife firmly in his hand Shinji cut the fresh coriander leaves quickly and efficiently. It was a simple job, and one that he enjoyed. He worked alone, had enough to eat, and even had his own room. He also knew that, in time, he would eventually earn his freedom.   
  
"Slave boy! Get out of my way!" shouted the visiting senator, drunk out of his wits, as he stomped into the kitchen. The man grabbed Shinji by the shoulders, meaning to toss him to the side, and Shinji deftly ducked underneath him..._  
  
-  
  
"I didn't mean to do it," Shinji insisted. "I was just going to crawl under his legs and run away, but he tripped and fell on the knife. I didn't mean to kill him."   
  
Asuka, her body shaking with amusement, shook her head in disbelief. "You're one of a kind Shinji, I'll give you that."  
  
"Uh, how about you? How'd you end up here?" Shinji asked awkwardly.  
  
"I deserted," she said, responding immediately. There was a moment of silence, and Shinji shifted nervously as the horses plodded forward. She continued, "They thought I was one of the survivors," she said harshly, still slightly angry at the memory. "They said I was a 'prisoner of war', like they'd taken me right off a battlefield. And all because some stupid Roman soldier recognized me...".  
  
_-Speaking of Roman soldiers…- _  
  
"Umm… shouldn't we be going a little faster?" asked Shinji.  
  
"You want to kill these horses? We've been riding all night," she said, sighing at his stupidity. "We want to get a good lead, but that doesn't mean we can afford to let these horses collapse from exhaustion. Don't you know anything?"   
  
"Oh," said Shinji, wishing he could be embarrassed about his lack of knowledge, if only because she wanted him to be.  
  
"So, what's this 'Riben' place like, anyway?" asked Asuka, once again lightening the tone of the conversation.  
  
"I don't really know," said Shinji. "I haven't really ever been there, except when I was too young to remember." His earliest memories were of his time aboard a ship sailing to China, a ship owned by his enigmatic father.   
  
"But you've heard about it right?" Asuka said persistently, "You said your people were barbarians. You must know something."  
  
"That's pretty much all I know about them," Shinji said. Hesitantly, he continued, "They eat fish and rice... They live in primitive houses. They don't know how to dye their clothing, so they can only wear white silk. That's why the Chinese call us barbarians."  
  
Asuka wasn't particularly sympathetic. "Guess you had to put up with a lot of crap, huh? Get used to it," she said, her face darkening slightly.   
  
"Why do you want to go Riben, anyway?" he asked, his tone gaining a bit more confidence.  
  
"I already told you. I like to visit new places," she explained, as if that was all the reason she needed..  
  
"But…"  
  
"But what?" she asked.  
  
"Are you... really sure you want to go?"  
  
"Of course," she said confidently, "Once I make a decision, it's as good as a fact. We're going."  
  
"Oh." He tilted his head forward, and his hair covered his eyes.  
  
Noticing this, she frowned in irritation. "You've never been to this place anyway, right?" she asked, "Don't _you_ want to go?"  
  
Vague and hidden memories threatened to surface, and Shinji, nervously silent, was unable to come up with an immediate answer for her.  
  
"Well?" Asuka asked in irritation, leaning towards him with a scowl on her face, "Can't you even answer a simple question?   
  
"I... I guess we could to go there..." he half-mumbled.  
  
"We've already decided that, _stupid_," she said, her tone rising in pitch annoyingly, "I asked if YOU wanted to go. What's so hard about that?"  
  
"W-well... I guess..." he said, reddening slightly at the unwanted attention from the impatient girl.  
  
"Just _tell_ me me for God's sake," she said, exasperated.  
  
"I just... I just don't really want to go there," he admitted. "That's all."  
  
"Okay, that's fine," she said, "You can leave right after you show _me_ where it is then."  
  
"But, I don't..." he said, trailing off, a weak protest.  
  
"Doesn't matter. You're so hopeless, you obviously need to get back to your roots," she said, and the confidence in her tone swept his weak protestations aside, "I did it a few years ago. It wasn't fun for me either, you know."   
  
"But... didn't you just say that I could leave after I show you where it is?" he asked, confused.   
  
"Well, if you want to do that even after all the trouble I go through in getting you there, it's your loss." She shrugged. "I guess you're just plain ungrateful."  
  
Shinji was still confused.  
  
End Chapter Three  



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